• Home
  • Contact
    • Collaborate
  • Blog
  • Parties
    • Children’s Parties Ideas
    • Holiday Parties
    • Adult Party Ideas
  • Holiday Ideas
    • Christmas
    • Easter
    • Fourth of July
    • Spring
    • Thanksgiving
    • Valentine’s Day
  • Seasons
    • Winter
    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
  • Recipes
    • Appetizers
    • Beverages
    • Desserts
    • Main Dishes
    • Side Dishes
    • Soups
  • Project Gallery
    • Crafts
    • Decorating
    • DIY
    • Good Ideas
    • Tutorials
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Bloglovin
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

At The Picket Fence with Vanessa Hunt

Where Ideas for your Home Meet Inspiration for your Heart

  • Book
  • Speaking
  • Meet Vanessa
    • Featured

April 28, 2011

Blogging 101: Photo Editing

Or also known as Picasa…it’s free, so learn how to use it! 


Welcome to Part Two of Photography Tips for New (and not so new) Bloggers.  This is a part of our ongoing series Blogging 101.  You can revisit all of our Blogging 101 posts by clicking on the Blogging 101 Link in our sidebar.  


Today we will explore this great tool provided by Google.  This is available for anyone who has a google account, but is specifically linked to blogspot blogs.  Welcome to:



That place where all of the photographs you put in your blog post go to live! It is easy to access Picasa if you know where to look.  On your Blogger dashboard scroll all the way to the bottom until you see this:

This is how you can access Picasa Web Albums.  I highly recommend bookmarking your Picasa Album Homepage once you open it up for easy access in the future.  When you click on the Picasa Web Album Link, it will take you to a page that looks like this:


This is the home page of At The Picket Fence’s Picasa Web Albums.  We have created several different albums but if you are accessing this for the first time you will likely only have one default album where all of your blog pictures go.  Ours is the last one one located at the very bottom of the screen shot.  If you open this up you will see all of the photos you have ever uploaded to your blog, including graphics such as your header, sidebar grahics, buttons, etc.  Surprise!  Now you know where they are! Each photograph or graphic is given a url code by Picasa.  This is the url that is located in your posts.  It is the “address” of your photo or graphic.  If you delete a photo out of your picasa web album the photo will disappear from your blog.  So do not ever delete a photo out of your picasa album that you do not want to delete from your blog or a post!  So, in layman’s terms:  your photos do not actually exist on your blog.  Your blog posted is coded to “talk to picasa web albums” and to stream over the picture to the specific post it is coded into.  That is why often you will see a delay in photos when you access a blog or post, or you might see only half of the photo. There is a communication delay between Picasa (or whatever server someone might have their photos stored on such as Flickr, etc) and the actual blog post.  There are two ways you can place a photo into Picasa.  


Option One: You can upload it from your computer straight into your blog (as we demonstrated in our last 101 post) this is the way most people place a photograph(s) into their blog post.  But say this pictures needs a little tweeking and you don’t own photo editing software such as Photoshop, is there a way to still make your pictures look better?  Well, glad you asked because yes there is! Option Two: Is you can upload your photographs straight to Picasa.

First you will need to access your Picasa Web Albums as we noted above.  Then you will need to locate the option to upload photos, which is located in the dashboard above the list of your web albums (see above screenshot) This will allow you to upload photos straight into Picasa from your computer, bypassing Blogger for now.



Next you will chose to create a new album or you can choose an existing album.  Also you can choose the visibility of this specific album.  We choose anyone with link except for a few which we make private such as graphics we might create or new projects we don’t want public yet. Then you will select “continue” which will take you to your computer files where you will select the photo(s) you want to upload.  

I chose to upload this photo to our web albums.  You can see it is now uploaded to Picasa.  After you upload your photo there will be a button in the lower right hand corner titled “Ok” select this and your photo will now be placed in the album you selected.  At this point you will be redirected to that album. Scroll down and locate the picture you uploaded.  It should be the last picture in the album because it is the most recently uploaded.  Select that picture, and it will open up into a screen where it will be featured by itself.  




Now located the Edit button in the top right hand corner of your screen.  It will have an image of a sky next to it (as seen in this screenshot). Click on the Edit button and Picasa will open up the photo editing part of it’s website.  Welcome to Picnik!

Picnik is the FREE photo editing that Google provides to anyone with a Google Account!
Here is a screenshot of Picnik with my photograph located in it.  Here you have several options to edit your photographs and to create text, frames, graphics, etc.  Many of these are free a few are premiere options that you can pay a small fee and access. We will learn how to use a few of the free options to make our photos look better!


Up first we are going to resize our photograph.  Why you ask?  Because the larger the photograph the more space it takes up in your Picasa Album, and you are only allowed so much space before they will charge you a small fee to buy more space.  Afterall, it is free and they are going to make some money off of you eventually. grin.  So keep your sized as small as possible.  Here you can see mine was uploaded at 1944 X 2896 pixels.  That is because my camera is set at a large file setting.  This is fine for printing actual physical photographs but WAY too huge for a blog.  If you ever wondered why it takes so long to upload a photograph to your blog it’s most likely because you are uploading a HUGE file such as this one.  Here is where we can resize those photographs to a more managable size.  This allows you to have control over the EXACT size of your photograph so that when you place it in your blog and select “original” for the photo size (as we learned in our last 101 post) it will be the exact perfect size you like! I changed this photo to 600 height by 400 width)  I might resize it a little manually when it is place in the post using the edit html tip we learned, but I won’t know this until it is actually in the post so for now I approximate the size I want.  Make sure “Keep Proportions” is selected as seen in the snapshot or else your photograph will become distorted.  When you have it at the size you like select “Ok”.

Here is where you can now edit your picture to brighten it, sharpen it and fix your lighting.  There is a learning curve that everyone needs to go through when it comes to editing pictures.  I am still learning so much.  But here are a few tips I can pass on.  
The first thing I do when I edit a photo is neutralize the color.  Neutralize the color?  Have you ever had a picture that appeared too “yellow” or too “blue”?  This is because your white light was not balanced in the picture.  The picture to the left was taken on a cloudy day with very little natural light.  It washed out my whites and made them appear gray. I can fix this by choosing the Color option under Edit. Than selecting the “Neutral  Picker” Button on the dashboard (see above snapshot).  A small eyedropper will take the place of your cursor.  Place the eyedropper on any part of your photo that should be white and hit enter.  This will change the temperature of the white in your photograph to a more pure white.  If it is too yellow it will become a more “bluer” white, and vice versa if it is too blue.  You can than tweak this even more using the Temperature slider at the top.  Most photographs are too yellow, especially those taken at night or with a flash.   Once you get your whites corrected move over to the Exposure button. 

Exposure is where you can “brighten” your photo up to make up for lack of natural light, etc.  You can play with the sliders at the top but I like to use the Advanced feature.  In the Advanced feature you can tweak your photo even more by changing the highlights, shadows, brightness and contrast of your photograph.  











You can see to the right a screenshot of the settings I used to fix my photograph.  I usually select Local Contrast first, than play around with the settings until I achieve the look for my photograph that I like.  Be very careful with the Brightness option in Exposure.  Making your photo too bright can cause it too look “blown out”.  This is where the light or white colors in your photo become so bright you no longer see any contrast or details in the lighter portion.  Not good. smile. 



Now I suggest you return back to the Color option in editing and play around with the saturation until you like the strength of the colors in your photograph.  Be careful not to oversaturate as your photograph will start to look “fake” and not natural..as in…there is no grass on the face of the Earth that was ever THAT green! 😉

Up next you will want to sharpen your photograph.  Sharp photographs are what makes all the difference.  If you have a DSLR camera it will create pretty sharp pictures all on its own.  If you are using a “point and shoot” than selecting the macro setting for up close shots will help to sharpen the photograph (we will learn how to do this in the next 101 installment) but even the best photographs can often use a little more sharpening.  Sharpening a photograph brings out the details more that are often lost when an object is made two dimensional.  

 Choose the Sharpen option in Edit.  You can use the sliding scale to auto sharpen your photograph or if you’re daring select Advanced and play around with it.  Remember it is better to make it slightly less sharp than to over sharpen it thus pixilating your photograph. Slide the scale all the way to the right and you’ll see what I mean.  Play around with the sharpening too until you get the photograph as sharp as you’d like and select Ok. 

Now that you have your photograph edited and you are happy with the results.  You can move over to the Create tab of Picnik.  Here is where we can add text, frames, fun seasonal pictures, etc.  It is also where you an Touch-Up photographs of people such as remove blemishes, make people thinner (oh yes you can! grin) etc.  I won’t be showing these features since my photograph is a still life.  But you can play around with this option to see all that is available.  


For this demonstration we are going to create a frame and add text to our photograph.


First we will add a frame.  There are several options for frames in Picnik.  And we’ve used many of them on our photographs and graphics.  For this photo I am choosing Museum Matte.  This will give my frame an outer frame and an inner matte, just like a professionally  framed photograph.  I have the option to choose the color of both the frame and matte as well as the size.  This is where it’s fun to play around and get the look you like. In frames is where you can also round the edges of your photographs.  If you round your edges be sure to select transparency for your edges so your photograph will not show white corners on your blog if your background is not white. Play around with the different frames until you get the look you like.  Nothing is permanent until you select Apply. 

Next, we are going to add some text to our photograh.  This is where you can add a “watermark” or some type of identification to your photo.  It is also where you can add fun fonts to graphics or buttons. There are dozens of fonts available to you in Picnik.  Most are free some are premiere fonts you will have to purchase.  In the upper left hand corner you will type in the words you want to be located on your photo.  The words will appear over your photograph in a box and will be much large than you want.  You can reduce the size of the box until the text is the size you like.  You can also rotate the text.  If you would like the text to appear on several lines just return to the text box where you typed in your text and hit enter between the words to create several lines of text.  You can play around with the different fonts as long as are still within the text box you are working with.  If you want different lines of fonts on the same picture just create a different text box for each line of type and font and then move the boxes around to you like the layout.

Here is my text.  Reduced and placed in the lower right hand corner as a watermark. You can see the box around my text.  A window will open up as seen in the screenshot allowing you to choose the color of the font, the justification of the font as well as several other options you can play around with.  Once you have chosen the text you like.  You can save your photograph.











You have two option when saving your photograph.  You can replace the original or save the edited photograph as a new file.  I usually replace the original if I’m happy with my edited photo to save space in our Picasa Web Album.  Remember your original is still located on you computer.  I will create a new file if it is a blank graphic that I change often such as my Blogging 101 graphic.  That way I always have the blank original to work with.  



Here is my original and edited photo side by side:



Better??  I think so! So, are you wondering now how I created the Before and After photograph? Well I did that using Picasa 3 which can be downloaded onto your computer!  With Picasa 3 you can create collages, headers for your blog, add even more text….and it’s free as well!  See Google isn’t always a pain in the tooshie! grin!  Here is the link to download Picasa 3 software to your computer.  

Picasa 3 Software

I hope you have learned a few new tips and helpful hints in this session of our Blogging 101 Series.  While I use Adobe Photoshop for much of my photo editing, I believe Picasa is a great editing tool especially for free!  Photoshop can come with a fairly steep pricetag as well as a steep learning curve.  Picasa is the perfect tool for Bloggers who just want to make their pictures look better and to add some fun features.  It also provides an easy way to create you own headers and buttons. I have been really pleased with the editing options in Picasa…and Google and Picasa are not paying me in anyway to say all of this..grin!

Soon I will be sharing the last session of the photography portion of our Blogging 101 Series.  We will discuss simple and easy ways to TAKE better pictures.  Hopefully the combination of the three photography posts will help you achieve better photographs for your blog! So head on over to Picasa and start playing around with your photographs, can’t wait to see what you come up with! 

And don’t forget…there is still time to enter to win our MathBlaster Giveaway! Scroll down to the next post to find out more about how you can win this fabulous prize.
Even if you don’t want to enter the Giveaway, it’s worth taking a peek just to see Vanessa and and my nephew Ian doing their video review!


Looking forward to meeting you again soon at the fence!

This post is linked up to the following fabulous parties:

Green Door Designs: Saturday Spotlight

DIY by Design: Swing into Spring
Elements Interiors: Whassup Wednesday

19 Comments Filed Under: Blogging 101, Good Ideas

Subscribe

Get the latest goodness straight to your inbox!

Previous Post: « “May the Force Be With You” A Special Guest and a Giveaway!
Next Post: Inspiration Friday No. 13! »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Pat says

    April 27, 2011 at 1:17 PM

    Wonderful post!

    Picasa was the first editing program I downloaded way back before I began blogging, through the recommendation of friends on a decorating forum I am a member of. So easy and does some great edits.

    Reply
  2. Shelia says

    April 27, 2011 at 1:54 PM

    Hi Heather! Thank you for these great tutorials. I didn’t even know you could edit photos like this until I started blogging. I haven’t used Picasa but use Photoscape. I’ll have to try the big “P”! 🙂
    Be a sweetie and have a wonderful day,
    Shelia 😉

    Reply
  3. trophyw.blogspot.com says

    April 27, 2011 at 2:16 PM

    Love the Blogging 101. I’ve used Picassa for years, but have never used the web album. I,m going to give it a try, but if my pics start looking good, people won’t recognize my blog.

    Reply
  4. Ann from On Sutton Place says

    April 27, 2011 at 4:06 PM

    Oh my gosh Heather thank you so much. I was just whining yesterday in my post about the quality of my pictures! Maybe this will help. I have struggled with camera skills since I started my blog. I don’t see much improvement since the beginning and I tend to get really frustrated. I am OK at the close ups but not so good at the far away pictures. Thanks again…you two should be so proud of your blog. It’s a delight! ~Ann

    Reply
  5. emilysnan says

    April 27, 2011 at 4:11 PM

    hiya heather , thanks for a grea tutorial , i am using picasa on my bog for a few weeks now but your tips are invaluable and soooo easy to follow , thanks again
    happy crafting /photography
    xmaggiex

    Reply
  6. Debbie says

    April 27, 2011 at 4:26 PM

    I will read this again and again just like I have done the other blogging 101 posts. They are excellent; I’m just technologically remedial so it takes me a time or twenty.

    Seriously, Heather, you should be writing this into a book for which you can earn money.

    Just a note:

    I did not put my name in for the math blaster because who in the WORLD would I give it to? We’re woefully deficient on kids around here.

    I did LOVE the video of Vanessa and her son. He is such a cutie patootie. If I had a son, I would want one like that. I just giggled all the way through to the dirty socks in the air.

    Reply
  7. Kelly says

    April 27, 2011 at 5:48 PM

    Great tips! Your blog is always so helpful. 🙂

    Kelly

    Reply
  8. rindercella @ neatheringourfest says

    April 27, 2011 at 6:57 PM

    i just started using piknic through flikr and i didn’t know what most of the stuff did! so this post was very informative – especially the “neutral picker” thing. I didn’t have a clue what that was. Great stuff – thanks for sharing! 🙂

    Reply
  9. michelle says

    April 27, 2011 at 7:11 PM

    I love Picasa and Picnik! These are great tips, thank you my dear! 🙂

    Reply
  10. ⚜ ↁℯℬℬᴵℰ⚜ says

    April 27, 2011 at 7:58 PM

    Love Picasa and I love Picnik too. I just heard about Photoshop and see that is really great, however, not necessarily free. Thanks for the tips girls!

    Reply
  11. Kim @ Quit Eating Out {Recipes to Make Dining Out a Choice, Not a Chore} says

    April 27, 2011 at 1:49 PM

    What a great post! Love this new blog and all of your great posts. I’m definitely struggling with photo editing and this is super helpful!!! Have a super day Friends!

    Reply
  12. Jenn says

    April 28, 2011 at 2:04 AM

    Great tutorial!! I have been wondering how to add a watermark. I will definitely be exploring some photo editing! Following you!

    Reply
  13. Lisa says

    April 28, 2011 at 5:34 AM

    Hi Heather! Thank you for your kind comments. You are so encouraging. I hope that your talk goes really well. You will do a great job!

    Reply
  14. Mindy @ Heart Maine Home says

    April 28, 2011 at 12:02 PM

    Thanks for all these tips! I’ve been using Picasa to edit my photos, but haven’t tried Picnik yet, so I think I will (that neutralize thing sounds awesome). Thanks again!

    Reply
  15. Courtney ~ French Country Cottage says

    April 28, 2011 at 5:18 AM

    This is INSANE!!! ! I use my photo editing software that came with my computer… an upload it to the blog. That’s it!! You know how long I have wondered about the whole picasa thing…the piknic (sp?)thing and the watermark!! Thanks so much for this informative post- I will have to try it out for sure! 🙂

    Reply
  16. Kim @ Cheap Chic Home says

    April 28, 2011 at 1:05 PM

    What great tips. I love Picasa, but don’t store my photos with them. Thanks for the heads up on “sharpen” I’ve clicked on that, but not noticed anything much. I’ll try it again.

    Reply
  17. Christy says

    August 9, 2011 at 3:04 PM

    Okay I have a question. After you edit your picture, how do you upload it back to blogger?

    Reply
  18. Gina says

    March 27, 2012 at 12:31 PM

    This is a wonderful tutorial, however.. I have looked and looked again, I do not have the picasa option on my dashboard? what am I doing wrong?

    I am new to visiting your blog, and I love it. thank you for all this blog love.

    gina

    Reply
  19. Hilda says

    June 4, 2012 at 5:07 AM

    I love these tutorials & look forward to applying lot of these tips to improve my pics! Like Gina in the comment above, I can’t find picasa on my dashboard either. I know Blogger recently changed their layout… can you tell me where this is on the new layout? Thanks!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Search This Blog

Take the Quiz

Stay updated!

Get all the latest goodness straight to your inbox!

Get the book!

Invite Vanessa to speak at your event!

Must Reads

Recent Posts

  • My French Country Christmas Mantel December 4, 2019
  • Incorporating Advent Candles Into Your Christmas Decor November 27, 2019
  • Simple Hot Cocoa Station November 21, 2019
  • An Update From Me to You November 15, 2019
  • My Crazy Christmas Shopping at Hobby Lobby November 4, 2019

Get all the latest straight to your inbox

Footer

Instagram

Instagram post 18118328449043115 One of my favorite Christmas songs is ‘O Holy Night’ and while each word, each lyric is as familiar to me as the back of my hand, there is one line that somehow, until recently, I managed to never really pay much attention to. It says, “Long lay the world, in sin and error pining till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.” Think about that for a moment. Our souls are longing to feel their worth. Prior to the arrival of the infant King in Bethlehem, the world waited, pined, engulfed in their sin and their error. And it was only through His birth, death and resurrection that our souls would experience their true value, their full worth.

Titus 3:4-7 says, “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” The world tells us that our worth is based entirely on the external, on what can be seen. We’re not measured simply by our existence but rather by what we can offer.

But, thousands of years ago, when our Savior was born, we were told something very different. Before he walked among us. Before he performed miracles. Before he challenged the leaders of the day. Before he was betrayed. Before he was sacrificed. Before he rose from the dead. Before all else, he simply appeared. And it was through his lowly, humble, anything but royal appearance that our souls were given the opportunity to experience the fullness of their worth. It is only through being in his presence that we are able to feel the full magnitude of our value.

Who he is allows us to know, really know, just who we are.

We are beloved.

We are cherished.

We are worth it.
Instagram post 18074214343167043 It always seems like the simplest things are my favorite when it comes to Christmas decorating. I found four transferware egg cups in a vintage shop and knew they would be perfect for our advent candles! Aren’t they just so sweet? With the little paper Putz village underneath this centerpiece in my dining room brings a smile to my face every time I walk by. ✨
Instagram post 18042969043211010 Raise your hand if these cold, dark mornings have you feeling a bit befuddled. 🙋🏻‍♀️ So far this week I’ve put a sweatshirt on backwards resulting in me getting a really good look at the inside of the hood and today I tried to put sweat pants on without taking my pajamas off first. 😂 #winning.

But, hey, at least I can take comfort in the soft glow of twinkling lights and having my halls decked for Christmas!

Today on the blog I’m sharing the details of my soft and simple mantel decorations and I’d love for you to stop by! ✨
Instagram post 18116596168021683 Happy Saturday friends! Can you believe that tomorrow is December 1?! I think it’s time for my annual gentle reminder about this month. I don’t know about you but, for me, December is a month of mixed emotions, ranging from joy-filled moments to ones that have me wanting to pull my hair out.

There are so many expectations and we put so much pressure on ourselves to create magical memories. And for years I have felt the added weight of wanting to make sure my family had opportunities throughout the month to grow in their relationship with Christ.

We celebrate advent and read all of the appropriate Baby Jesus books and encourage a spirit of generosity and heavily emphasize the real reason for the season.

But sweet friends, I want to remind you today that one month out of the year does not a strong relationship with the Lord make. December doesn’t define our faith in Christ.

For our kids or for us.

There are 11 other months in the year. 11 other months to live out our faith in front of our children. 11 other months to pray with them. 11 other months to help them wrestle through their questions and add depth to their walk with the Lord. 11 other months to encourage them to have generous spirits.

Let’s stop putting so much pressure on this one month out of the year. Let’s be surprised at the ways we might be able to celebrate the baby in the manger without a dozen countdown calendars. Let’s give our kids some grace when they are focused more on gifts because…well…they’re kids after all.

And while we’re at it, let’s give ourselves some grace too.

Grace when we think we should feel all the warm fuzzy feelings about Christmas but we really just want to take a nap.

Grace that reminds us that this month will soon be over and we will have a brand new year ahead of us.

A new year filled with big moments and little moments and everything in between.

A new year to draw even closer to our Savior.

My hope for you is that, as you head into this season, you will be given fresh perspective and that you will give yourself (and your family) permission to just ‘be’. ✨
Instagram post 17937591637321018 Have you ever longed to belong?

Have you ever felt like you are on the outside looking in at everyone else who seemingly have it all together?

Are you craving more peace in your heart and your home?

Well, today I’m having a conversation with @drbarbaralowe on her podcast and it could not be more timely with the holiday season now upon us!

You can find the link to it on her page and I’d love to hear your thoughts on it and what resonates with you! ❤️
Instagram post 17903771584388964 Confession...I’d rather have cranberry sauce smothering the turkey on my plate than gravy any day!! And this, this right here? Well it’s the best (and easiest!) cranberry sauce ever!! I eat on crackers and sandwiches and sometimes just by the spoonful. It’s so yummy! And I’m just so very thankful for all of you that I’m going to leave the recipe right here instead of making you go to the blog to get it. I promise you won’t regret having this on your Thanksgiving menu but be warned...you may find yourself up in the middle of the night sneaking some helpings of this deliciousness. Or maybe that’s just me!

Ingredients:
2 pounds fresh or frozen cranberries
2 oranges
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup white wine.

Instructions:
Wash and pick over berries, removing any that are soft. Peel and dice oranges removing any seeds. Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a full boil. Reduce heat and continue cooking until cranberries pop open and mixture is thickening.
For best flavor, prepare and let stand for several days before using.

Gobble, gobble!! 🦃
Instagram post 17846094718750175 Temperatures are dropping here in the Willamette Valley and I got our hot cocoa station set up just in the nick of time! My kids LOVE this sweet (literally!) spot in our house and my daughter added her own personal touch with the little sign on the wreath. I’ll be happily restocking ingredients over and over throughout the season as my kids and their friends make a pit stop here. We’re definitely ready to cozy up!! Do you have a hot cocoa or coffee station at your house? What are your must-haves for the perfect hot beverage? ☕️🎄
Instagram post 17880974047462626 It’s begun!! 🎄🎄 My best girl LOVES decorating the family room tree (we do a fresh tree in the living room after Thanksgiving) but she does NOT like me to take her picture while she’s doing it (see photo two). Ahhhh...preteens. 😂🤪 I’m just so grateful to have a buddy who is as obsessed with Christmas as I am and who still wants to be apart of it all with me!
Instagram post 17864348974529213 I'm struggling to find the right words on my book proposal for a book that I never thought I would dare to write. The words are in me, I just can't seem to get them onto the page. I'm so passionate about this message even though it is so different from anything I've ever done and might not be considered 'on brand'. And yet it's never been more clear to me that I'm supposed to keep moving forward. It's a message that might not be considered very 'popular' (this ain't a 'pull yourselves up by your bootstraps' kind of message about being a Christ-follower) but it's one that God has placed on my heart and in my very BEING and I have to get it out there.

But at every step of the way I find that the enemy of my soul tries to keep me silent and what should be so simple (writing two paragraphs giving an overview of the book or writing an outline) ends up being paralyzing. He whispers words into my ear that are lies tinged with just enough truth to tempt me to keep silent. “You're first book didn't sell well enough so why should any other publisher take a chance on you? They won't care that it wasn't really your fault." "You write a lot about home decorating so why would you have any authority to talk about scripture?” And that's how satan works...he is masterful in his deception, weaving our fears and insecurity into the lies so that we are much more likely to believe them. And if we believe them, we stop being obedient to the Lord and the callings He places on our lives.

But, I WILL NOT BE HINDERED. “Since the first hour in which goodness came into conflict with evil, it has never ceased to be true in spiritual experience, that Satan hinders us. He checks our importunity, and weakens our faith in order that, if possible, we may miss the blessing. Nor is Satan less vigilant in obstructing Christian effort. There was never a revival of religion without a revival of his opposition. What then? We are not alarmed because Satan hindereth us, for it is a proof that we are on the Lord’s side, and are doing the Lord’s work, and in his strength we shall win the victory, and triumph over our adversary." - Charles Spurgeon
Instagram post 18114202198050565 Happy weekend friends!! This has been one of my favorite kind of days today. The boys went and had some guy time and my daughter and I got some sweet girl time and now we’re all cozied in together at home enjoying just ‘being’. I’m doing some baking and dreaming about this year’s Christmas mantel. This photo is from a few years ago but it’s still one of my all-time favorites!

What’s been the best part of your day today? ❄️
Load More... Follow

Copyright © 2019 · Divine theme by Restored 316

Copyright © 2019 At The Picket Fence